Monday, 5 December 2011

Sab's Top Ten Curious Paris Corners

Wander around these sacred streets a moment, especially the older quarters, and raise your eyes from time to time as you round a corner or two.

Peek-a-boo! There's sometimes someone looking down on you. Some would say 'looking after' us. 'Guarding over' us would be pushing my irreligious tendencies a little too far, but whatever the origins of these charming corner curiosities, it's always a pleasure to discover them.

And discover them you will in the most unexpected places, which is just one more reason to wander around Paris with your nose in the air, at the danger of slip-sliding away when you step in something much more down to earth.

Once again, thinking back on all the interesting corner phenomena I've seen in my 20-odd years in the city, I'm a little worried as to which approach to take with this series. Should I limit it to statues in niches only or go wider to include amazing mosaics, ancient shop ensignia, historic timepieces and more?

Only time will tell, in fact, but one thing's for sure, there'll be a surprise around every corner in this Paris Top 10.

In my haste and desire to get this first beautiful little red statue pic out there and into your colletive eyeballs, I realise I have very little to actually say about it. But that in a way is good, because it brings me back to the original essence of all my Paris Top 10 series: pick a simple and well-defined Paris theme and offer you around ten pleasing examples of it without drowning you in too many words.

Obviously I haven't succeeded, as far as the syllabic soaking is concerned, as I can't seem to shut my fingers up once they get going. It's still good, though, for me to remember that the main subject of each posting in my top tens is... Read more

Yes, I've already written about this one - is there any Paris chronicler who wouldn't have - but I'll do it again with pleasure: same weirdness, different words!

And what a weird little Paris corner this one is to be sure to be sure. Plus, the great thing is that there's a very simple trap a lot of people fall into.

You see, what we've got here, one floor up, is a headless, indeed a most-of-its-body-less statue in one of those little niche nooky cranny things very much in the style of the Lady in Red at the top of... Read more

A woman cradles a baby on a windy Paris street corner. She's been there for as long as I can remember. From time to time strange shadows pass her by, neither stopping nor showing the slightest sign of recognition or acknowledgement that she even exists.

She holds the baby still. The occasional bicycle light, photographers and skateboarders skulk by but she remains impassive, immobile. A witness of the ages, half-harboured but desperately alone.

* Sab Will runsPhoto and Curios Tours in Paris, and also manages a variety of Paris and photography-themed sites and blogs. He writes an illustrated Paris Chronicle every day, runs a Meetup group for Paris lovers, interviews Paris personalities and reviews Paris books (on this blog), and even contributes to the city's street art (shh), so feel free to browse some of the links below and in the right-hand column to find out more about what he gets up to out there...﻿﻿